With five Padres games remaining in the regular season, the Padres have fallen two games behind the Giants in the National League West race and 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the wild-card race.

The only consolation for the Padres is that the Colorado Rockies were eliminated from contention Tuesday -- leaving three teams vying for two berths.

At the moment, however, the Padres are the odd team out -- and doing little offensively to reverse their fortunes.

During three straight losses, the Padres have scored a total of four runs on 14 hits.

"Here's the deal," said Padres manager Bud Black. "We know where we are. We have to get the bats going. Hopefully, we'll break out tomorrow."

Nick Hundley's game-tying, two-run homer in the fifth off Cubs starter Ryan Dempster Tuesday night ended a string of 20 straight scoreless innings for the Padres -- who have scored in only one of their last 25 innings.

Alfonso Soriano answered Hundley's homer a half-inning later -- snapping a 2-2 tie by driving a low fastball from Mat Latos into the Padres bullpen for a two-run homer.

Soriano, who added a solo homer in the eighth off Padres reliever Mike Adams, followed a single by former Padre Xavier Nady with a drive into the Padres bullpen in left-center.

Soriano's decisive shot off Latos came an inning after the 22-year-old's fielding error led to two unearned runs.

With one out in the fifth, Cubs catcher Koyie Hill tried to push a bunt up the third base line. Instead, he put the ball in position for Latos to make the play. But the pitcher was unable to pick up the bunt.

Cubs starter Ryan Dempster sacrificed Hill to second and the catcher scored when Kosuke Fukudome sliced an opposite-field double over the head of Padres left fielder Matt Stairs.

Fukudome scored when Miguel threw wildly to first after stopping Starlin Castro's grounder up the middle from rolling into center.

The Cubs second win in as many nights came while both the Giants and Braves were winning two straight.

The loss was the fourth straight for the 22-year-old Latos, who is scheduled to pitch the Padres regular season finale in San Francisco Sunday afternoon.

"His stuff was fine," Black said of Latos, who showed his emotions following his fifth-inning error and again after Soriano's tiebreaking homer.

"As the game wore on, I saw him a little bit more emotional than he has been," said Black.

“I gave up four runs, but I felt like the old me,” said Latos. “I felt everything was smooth, mechanics wise. My delivery was smooth to the plate. I didn’t make a couple mistakes with my curveball like I had in the past. I was down in the zone. I had life on my fastball.

"Yes, we've accomplished a lot this season . . . we've been in first place for a long time, three-fourths of the season. But I think we've just got to get back on track and keep attacking."

Hundley's game-tying homer was one of only four hits the Padres got off Dempster and two relievers.

The Padres, who were shutout on four hits Monday night, went up-and-down in order in five of the nine innings Tuesday night. Dempster retired 12 straight Padres between Tejada's one-out single in the first and Headley's walk in the fifth.

The only other time the Padres put two runs on in the same inning was the seventh when Matt Stairs led off with a double and Headley walked to put runners at first and second with no one out.

Dempster struck out Hundley, Chris Denorfia and pinch-hitter Yorvit Torrealba to get out of the inning and push his strikeout total to 201 for the season.